Chart assignment

Charts to read and discuss

Read each chart, then answer its questions. Every chart shows its source and date; open it for a table of the numbers and the data to download.

  1. Which US airports have the most delayed departures?
  2. How much does each country spend on health care per person?
  3. How many babies were given your name each year since 1880?

Chart 1 of 3 · Air travel

Which US airports have the most delayed departures?

The interactive chart needs JavaScript. The numbers are on the chart's page.

In the 12 months through August 2026, 32.3% of flights leaving Dallas, TX (DAL) left 15 or more minutes late, the most of the 102 U.S. airports with at least 10,000 departures. Kona, HI (KOA) had the fewest, 13.7%; Atlanta (ATL), the busiest, was at 21.8%. Search for any airport by city or code.

Questions to discuss

  1. In one sentence of your own, what does this chart show?
  2. Find the biggest change or difference in the chart. What might explain it?
  3. Who collected these numbers, and how recent are they? What else would you want to know before drawing a conclusion?

Chart 2 of 3 · World

How much does each country spend on health care per person?

The interactive chart needs JavaScript. The numbers are on the chart's page.

In 2023, the United States spent $13,473 per person on health care, about 10 times the world figure of $1,317. Germany spent $6,395, Japan $3,638, China $763 and India $85; Madagascar spent the least, $17. Search 191 countries and territories. Spending counts what governments, insurers and households paid for health care, but not new hospitals or equipment, in US dollars at each year's exchange rates, not adjusted for differences in prices.

How to read this chart

Each bar is what a country spent on health care in a year, by governments, insurers and households together, divided by its population and turned into U.S. dollars. The dashed line is the world. The figures aren't adjusted for prices, so a dollar buys more care in some countries than others.

Questions to discuss

  1. About how many times the world figure does the United States spend per person?
  2. Does spending more on health care per person always mean people live longer? What other chart on Chartly could help you check?
  3. Doctors and nurses are paid less in some countries. How would that change what these dollar figures can tell you?

Chart 3 of 3 · Baby names

How many babies were given your name each year since 1880?

The interactive chart needs JavaScript. The numbers are on the chart's page.

Type any name to see how many U.S. babies were given it each year since 1880, for girls or boys. Emma, shown first, went from 2,003 girls in 1880 down to 414 in 1976, then back up to a peak of 22,719 in 2003; in 2025 it was 12,754. The counts come from Social Security card applications, so the early years undercount everyone. A year with fewer than 5 babies of a name shows as 0, because Social Security leaves those names out for privacy.

How to read this chart

Each point is the number of U.S. babies given a name in one year, from Social Security card applications. Type any name to see its line, for girls or boys. These are counts, not shares, and far more babies are born today than in 1880, so a count can grow just because the country did.

Questions to discuss

  1. Look up your own name or a friend's. When was it most popular, and what might explain that?
  2. Why are counts from the 1880s lower than counts today, even for names that were very popular then?
  3. How could you change these counts to fairly compare a name's popularity in 1900 with today?

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